PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Tuesday, April 14, 2026
CONTACT: Jodie Medeiros, Executive Director, Walk SF, jodie@walksf.org, 415.596.1580; Marta Lindsey, Communications Director, Walk SF, marta@walksf.org, 617.833.7654
Pedestrian killed by hit & run driver in SOMA marks eighth pedestrian death this year
Almost all traffic deaths so far have been pedestrians
San Francisco, Calif. – Walk SF learned from the San Francisco Police Department that a pedestrian was fatally hit by a hit-and-run driver yesterday, April 13, 2026, at the intersection of Mission Street and South Van Ness in the South of Market neighborhood in District 6. No additional information is available at this time.
“We grieve for the victim and their loved ones,” said Jodie Medeiros, executive director for Walk San Francisco. “We all deserve to be able to get around safely in our city.”
Walk San Francisco (Walk SF) and San Francisco Bay Area Families for Safe Streets (Families for Safe Streets) are here to support the friends and loved ones of the victim however possible.
Resources, including post-crash checklists in English, Chinese, Spanish, and Tagalog, are available at walksf.org/fss.
There have now been eight pedestrians in San Francisco in 2026. The first pedestrian death in 2026 was a 76-year-old woman on February 3rd at Bayshore Boulevard & Silver Avenue in District 10. The second was a 47-year-old woman who was hit and killed at Bayshore Boulevard and Arleta Avenue on February 14th in District 10. The third was a two-year-old child who was hit and killed by a driver on February 27th, 2026 at the intersection of 4th and Channel Streets in District 6. The fourth was a 42-year-old pedestrian who was fatally struck by a hit-and-run driver on March 5th at the intersection of Mission Street and Naglee Avenue in the Outer Mission neighborhood in District 11. The fifth was a 46-year-old pedestrian who was fatally struck on March 5th on the sidewalk near Broadway and Kearny in the North Beach neighborhood in District 3. The sixth was a 57-year-old pedestrian who was fatally struck by a MUNI bus on Geary Avenue between Kearny and Grant Streets. The seventh was 49-year-old Cuthberto Zamora, who was fatally struck on the sidewalk near the intersection of Jackson & Beckett Streets in the Chinatown neighborhood in District 3.
According to the City’s traffic fatality tracker, eight of the nine people killed in traffic crashes this year were pedestrians; no motorists have died in traffic crashes. The City’s traffic fatality tracker can be viewed here, note that information is not up-to-the-minute.
“This statistic underscores just how vulnerable we are as pedestrians and the need for more solutions to keep us safe, especially children, seniors, and people with disabilities,” said Medeiros. “Every life lost is a painful reminder that city leaders must treat traffic safety as an urgent priority.”
Mission Street and South Van Ness Avenue is a wide, sprawling intersection and is on the city’s new 2024 “high-injury network” map, the 13% of San Francisco streets that account for 74% of serious injuries and death. Both streets are around 125-foot-wide with seven travel lanes. This is the second traffic fatality on Mission Street and the second traffic fatality on South Van Ness Avenue this year.
“The SOMA neighborhood is a hotspot for deadly streets, with every single street on the high-injury network,” said Medeiros. “This neighborhood and everyone who lives there deserves more solutions to keep them safe.”
The SOMA neighborhood has long been a highly dangerous part of the city for pedestrians. Its streets were designed for industrial uses like factories and warehouses, with many freeway entrances and exits, wide one-way streets (like Bryant, Harrison, Howard, and Folsom) and high volumes of vehicle traffic. In the years since, SOMA has transformed into a dense residential neighborhood, with schools, parks, and diverse commercial uses. Yet streets in SOMA are still largely designed to prioritize moving high volumes of traffic versus prioritizing pedestrian safety and residents.
Aggressive driving, especially speeding, pose constant threats to people walking in SOMA. The speed camera at Bryant and 3rd Streets in SOMA issued more citations than any other speed camera in the city from October to December 2025, reflecting how many drivers are going way too fast in this neighborhood.
Speed is the #1 cause of severe and fatal traffic crashes in San Francisco. The faster a driver is going, the more likely a crash is to occur. A driver has a smaller scope of vision, less time to react, and can’t stop the vehicle as quickly. With vehicles larger, heavier, and more powerful than ever – plus drivers more distracted – the stakes with speeding have never been higher.
The most frequently cited study on speed and risk of fatality shows that at 25 MPH and under, a person has a less than 1 in 4 chance of being severely injured or killed if they are hit. But by 40 MPH, this flips, with 75% of pedestrians suffering life-threatening injuries or dying.
Walk San Francisco has been watchdogging progress on both the Street Safety Act passed unanimously by the Board of Supervisors in September and the Street Safety Initiative executive directive signed by Mayor Daniel Lurie on December 15, 2025.
Mayor Lurie launched his new Safe Streets Task Force within the Mayor’s Office last month, which represents a major step for San Francisco in elevating traffic safety.
“We’re glad Mayor Lurie is making safe streets a priority and has put oversight of traffic safety directly in his office,” said Medeiros. “Traffic safety is a multifaceted problem that requires a multi-layered approach,” said Medeiros.
The Street Safety Act and Street Safety Initiative both include a range of actions to bring data-driven solutions to more streets at a faster pace. This includes:
- Adding ‘Complete Streets’ infrastructure improvements (like pedestrian bulb-outs, turn calming, hardened daylighting, and pedestrian safety islands) any time a high-injury or arterial street is repaved or updated in other ways
- Replacing the Residential Traffic Calming Program with a proactive approach for adding speed humps and cushions across neighborhoods with data-driven, pre-approved design standards so these can be installed quickly
- Planning for bringing ‘hardened daylighting’ to the high-injury network plus establishing a process for community groups or residents to enhance daylit corners
- Increasing and focusing SFPD traffic enforcement on the driving behavior most likely to result in a traffic crash, plus conducting monthly strategic enforcement operations on speeding to complement the locations and effectiveness of the speed camera program
- Prioritizing the use of automated enforcement, including speed cameras and red light cameras, including pursuing more legal authority to expand the use of speed cameras
- Establish street design standards and maximum review periods for approval by the Fire Department so safety projects are implemented faster.
- Focus SFPD traffic enforcement on the most dangerous driving behaviors and the high-injury network.
- Establish a public dashboard updated quarterly with outcomes-based metrics to assess progress toward ending severe and fatal crashes, plus more regular updates of the high-injury network and crash data analysis.
“Streets can be designed and enforced to make us dramatically safer,” said Medeiros. “There are many proven solutions to reduce the chance of a crash and save lives. It’s a matter of bringing more solutions to many more places. That’s why we’re looking to Mayor Lurie, Supervisors, and City agency leaders to take what’s in the Street Safety Initiative and Street Safety Act and turn it into real action.”
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Walk San Francisco (‘Walk SF’) advocates on behalf of all pedestrians in San Francisco. Since its founding in 1998, Walk SF has successfully pushed for solutions to design and enforce streets where people of all ages and abilities are safe walking. Learn more.
San Francisco Bay Area Families for Safe Streets is a group of people who have been directly affected by traffic crashes, including crash survivors and people whose loved ones have been killed or injured in traffic crashes. Learn more.